I went to argue but the deep grooves etched into his forehead told me there was little point. “I won’t use my skills to hurt him. He will always be my friend.”
Father shook his head. “He will always now be your enemy. He will kill you when he realises you have more power than him.”
“You’re wrong.” I screamed the words. They tore through my throat. “You are wrong.”
He smiled, tight and thin lips, almost a sneer. “I am never wrong. You, daughter may have the power of magic within you, but I can sense where it goes, and I can call it where I want.”
“You didn’t even know I had it.”
He laughed. “Didn’t I?”
I stumbled at his question. “You said magic was gone, the gold thread had been extinguished by the red.”
“And now it’s back in you, Mae.” He rose his hands to the sky. “It’s returned in my daughter; our race of Druids will survive through you, and man will fall at our feet.”
Unable to stay and listen, I gathered my skirts into my hands and ran deep into the forest, my heart screaming in my chest. I only stopped when I splashed into the clear crystal waters. Soaking my dress, the chilled depths tugged around my ankles and I threw myself towards them. Red strands of my hair spread around me in a halo as I sank under the surface. Watching them fan in a vibrant array I wondered how part of me could be so red, when within me, even in the depths of deep blue water I could feel so golden.
14
When I woke I was tangled in his arms. It was awkward, but it should have felt a lot more so. My skirt was on the floor, and I’d slept in a t-shirt of his—which smelled somewhere close to heaven—and my panties. His hand rested on my thigh, and his breath inhaled and exhaled gently from his mouth into my ear. Being in his room thirteen hadn’t stopped the dreams.
Light stole through his curtains and I knew I needed to somehow de-tangle myself from his embrace and get back to the girls' dorm before we were discovered. While we had done nothing other than talk—the most intimate moment being when he kissed me on the cheek and wished me a good sleep—my night spent in Tristan Prince’s arms was unlike any I’d had in the previous eighteen years.
“How did you sleep?” His arms tightened for a moment around my body before releasing and stretching. He smelled of delicious crumpled cotton sheets and still the hint of pine and forest.
“Uh, better I think. I still dreamed though.”
With warm fingers he lifted my chin so he could see my face. Golden stubble lined his jaw, and his hair was a nest of havoc—but then I hadn’t seen my own yet.
“Me too.”
“Things are changing for them. What did you see?”
It was insane talking about it. But at the same time oddly reassuring.
“Mae is keeping her distance, and he…” Tristan hesitated, “He is hurt. It’s a lot to take in being in charge, and he misses her. Misses their moments together.”
His dark gaze settled on my face. “What did you see?”
“Mae has magic.” I said it.
“Do you?” His gaze was serious despite the ridiculous path our conversation was traveling down.
“No!” I laughed, but I remembered the golden flow of energy and how familiar it had felt. My smile dropped. “Is it us? Have we met before? I still can’t believe it.”
He shifted, rolling me under him until I was caged in his arms. My heart squeezed and my mouth dried. “I—” He didn’t get to say anything else because the door flew open and Mrs Cox loomed in the doorway, the look on her face one of shock and dismay.
He dropped his head onto the pillow next to mine. “Shit.”
We walked in silence through the echoing hallways. Five times I went to speak, glancing in his golden direction. Five times I stopped—not knowing what to say.
'Hey, look at us! We dream about one another in a different time. Oh, and also I slept in your room, and it was magical even though we barely touched'.
Silence was better. I’d survived the day without seeing him after Mrs Cox had dragged me back to the girls wing and left him buttoning a shirt over his toned abs. I wouldn’t have minded, but it’s not like she found us naked. It’s not like anything even happened.
At the end of the day, after dinner, I was in my room combing my hair for the awful social. I was going to have to sit through everyone talking about how I’d been found in Tristan Prince’s room. There was a knock on the door.
It was him, displaying a wide smile while he relaxed against my doorjamb. “My Lady.”
I flushed. “Don’t call me that.”
He laughed and tugged at my hand. “Don’t care. Are we going to this social?”
“Together?”
He shrugged, but his eyes were alive with dancing depths of molten warmth.
He led us back to the main hall and to a doorway off to the side. “The social is in there.”
My stomach did all sorts of crazy dancing with his rubbing low words. “This is going to be hideous.”
“I think we might have faced worse.”
I shook my head and pushed my hand against his chest. “Don’t, Tristan. We still don’t know anything. This could all still be a weird coincidence.” I said it, my words full of convinced rationality—I didn’t believe it. Throwing off my worry, I lightened my expression into one of a friendly smile—the kind of things girls would normally do when they met someone they hated and wanted to kill but then decided that they actually might like after all. “So, the social?”
His lips teased at the edges. “It’s not a date.” His fingers lifted, and I held my breath, but they dropped again sliding into his pocket. “We need to get on the register, otherwise I’ll be
